


A Bedtime Story

by Just_a_kid_at_heart



Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Family, Family Feels, Mother-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 07:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17935073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_a_kid_at_heart/pseuds/Just_a_kid_at_heart
Summary: It doesn't matter why you can't sleep, sometimes all you need is a good story to help you drift off to dream land.





	A Bedtime Story

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to @ianmuyrray for her amazing job betaing this story. It is so much better because of you. 
> 
> Background and inspiration: I am currently re-reading The Fiery Cross at the moment so I will say by way of warning there are spoilers for that book as well as the later books, so if you haven’t read and prefer to remain unspoiled, please feel free to turn back now. 
> 
> As I was reading the whole baptism scene during the Gathering, I was struck by how unique it was, and it made me wonder as Jem got older did anyone ever share with him the adventure that was his christening. This is my imagining of that. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Jem woke with a start. He couldn’t remember the dream he had just had, but it left him with an unsettled feeling. He pushed back the covers from his bed and turned to get out. He had been putting on a brave face since they had all traveled back through the stones. He didn’t want Mam and Da worrying about him when he knew they needed to focus on Mandy and making sure she was better. So when Mam and Da asked if he wanted one of them to stay with him, he had insisted that he was fine spending the night with Uncle Joe and Aunt Gayle here. But those thoughts didn’t matter right now; whatever the dream was that woke him had left him feeling uneasy and all he wanted was his Mam or Da. He was starting to wish he hadn’t been so insistent before.

Jem crept out of bed and down the stairs. Maybe a glass of water would help settle him. He tried to be as quiet as possible. Uncle Joe and Aunt Gayle seemed very nice, but he didn’t really know them yet, and he didn’t know how they would react if they caught him out of bed this late. Uncle Joe kinda reminded him of Grannie, probably because they were both doctors and had been friends before. He knew how Grannie would react to this late night escapade and figured that Uncle Joe would probably react the same. Grannie was more than cross with him the night he snuck down to the kitchen for a midnight snack. It probably hadn’t helped that he had broken the jar in the process of getting the cookie. Grannie was so mad, she yelled so much she woke up Grandda and he thought someone was attacking the house. Afterwards he and Grandda had laughed about it, but he didn’t want to take the chance of waking up Uncle Joe and having him react like Grannie. 

Who he really wished was here was Grandda. Gandda wasn’t afraid of anything. He would know exactly what to do or what story to tell to help him settle back down for the night and get some sleep. But since Grandda was 200 years in the past, he would just have to settle for a glass of water and hope he could figure out how to clear his mind himself.

As Jem approached the kitchen, he noticed that the light was on. This wasn’t helping to calm any of his nerves. Who could be in the kitchen in the middle of the night? Jem peered around the corner, hopefully he could be sly enough about it that if it were an intruder, he could go wake up Uncle Joe to warn him. As his eyes took in the kitchen, he saw that it was only his mother, sitting at the table with a glass of something in her hand. What was Mam doing back from the hospital?

“Mam?” Jem questioned, as he padded into the kitchen. “Why aren’t you at the hospital with Mandy?”

Brianna started at her son’s voice. When she had arrived at a dark house, she thought everyone was sleeping soundly in their beds. And that was for the best, as she needed a moment or two to herself to process these past few days. 

Life had been a whirlwind since they had come through the stones on Okracoke. From contacting Joe to the long doctor’s appointments checking out Mandy and getting her set up for surgery, she felt like there had barely been a moment to breathe, let alone process everything that had happened. She could only imagine what must be going through her son’s mind. They had upended the world as he knew it, taking him to this strange new land in the future. With everything that was happening with Mandy they had only had the chance to go over the bare minimum with Jem of what everything was regarding the future, so she was sure he would have questions. She also hoped her firstborn was not feeling neglected as they worked to make sure their baby girl was all right.

Brianna turned to her son. “Your father insisted I sleep in a proper bed. He reminded me that I have been with Mandy nonstop since we started getting her ready for surgery. Said he needed some daddy-daughter time and that I should take the opportunity to rest. The two of us will join them at the hospital in the morning.”

Jem nodded at his mother’s explanation as he approached the table. He could see how tired his mother was from having to deal with everything. He wished there was a way he could make things better for her, wished there was a way he could have prevented his little sister from being sick. Maybe he could show his mother a bit of comfort. He came close and moved to climb into her lap.

Brianna looked at her son with a curious expression. Jem climbing into her lap was a little strange. He had been growing up so much that he didn’t cling to her as he did when a babe. “Oh honey, are you ok? I know things have been a little crazy lately with everything happening with your sister, but I want to make sure you know just how much your Da and I love you.” Brianna held back a few tears, she had missed these sweet moments with Jem, soon he would be too big to cuddle in her lap.

Brianna held Jem in her lap for a quiet moment, reveling in the feeling of her son safe and warm in her arms, only to glance at the clock and realize what time it was. “What are you doing up so late and down in the kitchen, shouldn’t you be in bed?”

Missing his bedtime would usually be something that would upset his mother, but he didn’t sense anger from her at the moment, just curiosity. “A dream woke me up, I was feeling uneasy and I thought a glass of water might help me get back to bed. I didn’t want to bother Uncle Joe. I thought I could just get it myself.”

Brianna smiled, she could remember plenty of times when Jem refused to settle for bed and the only way to get him to sleep was a glass of water and a story. She was thankful to be home with him. 

Brianna set Jem on the floor as she walked over to the sink to grab a glass of water. “Have I ever told you the story of when you were baptized?”

Jem looked at his mother curiously, this seemed like an odd question. He couldn’t recall anyone ever telling him the story, but he remembered Mandy’s and there wasn’t anything special about that. “No, I’ve never heard that story.”

Brianna started the tale as she walked Jem back upstairs to his bed. “Well, one thing to remember is that your grandda was Catholic, and although he wasn’t thrilled that your father wasn’t, he had accepted Roger, but had insisted the two of us would be married by a priest and that you were baptized as well.”

Jem nodded as Brianna tucked him back into his bed. She sat at the edge continuing the story. “I’m sure you noticed when we were at the Ridge there wasn’t exactly a priest nearby, what with Catholics not being popular at the time, but a lot of the Scottish Highlanders were still Catholic, even if they didn’t talk about it that much. Now, not long after you were born there was a big Gathering of all the Scots in North Carolina at Mt. Helicon, it was a time when everyone would come together and since everyone was so spread out, this was also a good time for people to have marriages and christening when everyone could be together. You remember Aunt Jocasta and Duncan?”

Jem nodded sleepily, already feeling tired and settling down warm and safe in his bed with his mother nearby, but he did his best to keep his eyes open.

“Well,” Brianna continued, “Aunt Jocasta had planned to marry Duncan at the Gathering that year, and she didn’t plan to be married by anyone other than a priest. She had sent for a priest all the way from Baltimore to make sure she and Duncan wed properly, and since he was already there, he was planning to marry your father and I as well. And your Grandda had planned for him to have you, Germain, and little Joanie baptized too.” 

Jem tried to hide his yawn from his mother, and although he loved her dearly, she wasn’t as great of a storyteller as Grandda, but she was doing her best. He really wanted her to get to the part that made this story so interesting; everything seemed fairly boring right now.

“There was just one problem. Someone had tipped off the Sheriff that there was a priest and he came and arrested him. Now, of course, someone informed your Grandda of this right away, but unfortunately, there wasn’t much that he could do to get him out. The Sheriff would not let the priest perform any ceremonies, they would let him go unharmed, but he had to head straight home to Baltimore and out of North Carolina.”

“Your Grandda, quick thinker and the smooth talker he is, convinced the Sheriff to allow the priest to hear his confession before they let him out. Now before your Grandda had visited the Sheriff’s tent, he had told Marsali and me to grab you, Germain and Joanie and be ready near the Sheriff’s tent for a signal. Your Grandda had a plan up his sleeve. He distracted the Sheriff and his acquaintances so that while he was ‘confessing’ his sins to the priest, we snuck in to have the three of you baptized. It was quite an unorthodox christening as the priest wasn’t fully prepared. He had chrism with him, but he was lacking the water needed for baptism. So what does your grandfather offer instead? Some whisky from the flask he had with him, which didn’t seem to bother the priest as much as I would have thought it might.”

Brianna chuckled under her breath at the end of the story. “And that is how you came to be baptized quickly in the backwoods of North Carolina, with whisky as your baptismal water.” She could still remember all too well the craziness of the last day of the Gathering. She looked down at her son and saw him peacefully sleeping away. She didn’t know when he fell asleep, so she very well may have to tell the story again, but she wouldn’t mind, she would do far worse things than repeat a bedtime story to see the smile that was gracing her son’s face as he slept. The same smiled her mother told her, her father had sometimes when he slept. She prayed that they were both safe in the past and had found a way to survive the fire, but she would worry about catching up with that later. Right now she need to make sure her children were safe and happy. One slept peaceful in front of her, and she hoped with Mandy’s surgery behind her, she would see another happy child come morning. But, now it was time for her to make her way to bed as she bent to kiss Jem’s forehead before walking out and shutting the door behind her.


End file.
